Category: Study of the Atonement Series

In the American church and most of the western world, comfortable theologies of the sinning Christian have obscured the truth about God’s law and his atonement. A powerful illustration by Charles Finney, drawn from Ecclesiastes 8:11, demonstrates the intention of God to persuade sinners to give up their spirit of rebellion, and the great guilt...

Jesus said, “Do not begin to think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I came not to abolish but to fulfill.” Weaving in Charles Finney’s allegory about parents pleading for the pardon of their condemned son, Pastor Ray shows that the new covenant does not abolish the requirements of the moral...

Charles Finney described his conversion as, “I felt myself justified by faith…I was in a state in which I did not sin. Instead of feeling that I was sinning all the time, my heart was so full of love that it overflowed…I could not feel that I was sinning against God. Nor could I recover...

The virgin birth and the pre-existence of Jesus Christ are two key elements in understanding that Jesus is the atonement, the verdict against mankind, and the gospel. We’re not saved by punishment that Jesus endured; we are saved by Jesus himself. Do you respond to this like the wise men who put their faces on...

After Bunyan’s Christian and Hopeful leave the Delectable Mountains, they meet a pilgrim named Ignorance from the Country of Conceit. He entered the way by a crooked lane instead of the narrow gate. Ignorance refused to be convinced that he would be unable to enter the Celestial City unless he was crucified with Christ and...

Your salvation largely depends on what you believe happened at the cross, as our behaviors simply mirror our beliefs. Did God punish God with the literal wrath for the past, present, and future sins of only the elect, who will be inevitably saved from hell? Or did Jesus, as both high priest and sacrifice, lay down...

The atonement and its benefits are two distinct works that were prefigured by the two goats of the sin offering in Leviticus 16. The finished work at the cross made full provision for the forgiveness of our past sin and the removal of all sin from our souls. We have time to repent because Jesus died...

For the past 1,000 years, the doctrine of penal atonement, developed by Saint Anselm, has pervaded Christian churches of nearly every denomination. The Puritans, John Wesley, and Charles Finney were some who stood against this false teaching that Christ literally became sin and that believers will always be sinners. An in-depth look at Scripture, in...

There is no sanctification after death. A close look at the original Greek text overturns a cornerstone of this false gospel: Jesus did not become sin. Instead, “The one not having experienced sin took sin on our behalf in order that we might be made righteous.” The death of Christ condemned all who sin. You...